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REPORT 



OF THE 



General War-Time 

Commission of the 

Churches 



PRESENTED TO THE 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE FEDERAL 

COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHE^' OF 

CHRIST IN AMERICA 

Cincinnati, December, 1917 



CONTENTS OF THE REPORT 
I. The Origin of the Commission 

PAGE 

Its Constitution by the Federal Council 223 

The Membership of the Commission 224 

Its Relation to the Cooperating Bodies and the Council. 224 

Acknowledgment of Services 225 

II. The Organization of the Commission 

The Problem of Organization 226 

The Commission's Statement of Purpose 227 

The War-Time Task of the Church 227 

Religious Agencies in War Work: 

The Commissions of the Council 228 

The Army and Navy Chaplains 229 

The Young Men's Christian Associations 231 

Other Interdenominational Agencies 232 

The Church and the Y. M. C. A 233 

The Denominational War-Time Commissions 235 

Problems of Adjustment 236 

III. The Work of the Commission 

The Program of the Commission: 

Survey of the Field 238 

Interpretation and Cooperation 239 

Literature and Publicity 240 

Undertakings and Achievements : 

Community Organization in Camp Neighborhoods 241 

The Needs of the Chaplains 242 

Voluntary Chaplains 243 

The Work of the Local Churches 244 

Moral Welfare of the Army and Navy 245 

Work for Special Groups 245 

The Problems of the Future 246 

Individual Initiative and Cooperative Effort 247 

The Interpretation of Ideals 249 

Appendices 

I. List of Officers, Members, and Committees of the General 

War-Time Commission 251 

II. List of Denominational and Interdenominational War-Time 

Agencies and Their Officers 257 

in. A Call to Prayer, issued November, 1917...., 260 

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REPORT OF THE 
GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION 
OF THE CHURCHES 

I. The Origin of the Commission 

I'he General War-Time Commission of the Qiurches is a 
committee of one hundred persons belonging to the different 
religious bodies which are dealing in direct and responsible 
ways with the new problems which the war has raised. The 
justification of its existence is the same need of coordina- 
tion which has called into being similar bodies in other spheres 
of the nation's activity. Four different groups of agencies 
are at work in the religious field: first, the chaplains of 
the Army and Navy; second, the denominational war com- 
missions; third, the interdenominational agencies Hke the 
War Work Councils of the Young Men's and the Young 
Women's Christian Associations, tfie American Bible Society, 
the National _ Sunday School War Council and the Young 
People's Societies: and, lastly, the committees and commis- 
sions of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
America. It is clear that if these bodies are to work effectively 
they must work together. The work of the church, like the 
work^ of the nation, must be conceived as a unity, and each 
contributing agency must occupy its own place as part of a 
single comprehensive plan. 

Its Constitution by the Federal Council 

ReaHzing this need the leaders of the Federal Council called 
at Washington on May 8 and 9, 1917, a special meeting of 
the Council and its cooperating agencies, which was attended 
by representatives of no less than thirty-five different bodies 
engaged in war work. Two matters engaged the attention 
of the delegates: first, a message to the churches, defining 
the ideals which ought to animate Christians in this time of 
testing; and, second, a discussion of methods by which these 
ideals might be translated into reality. All agreed that if the 
spirit which inspired the gathering was not to" be dissipated in 
mere talk, some definite organization must be constituted to 
give effect to its conclusions, and the Administrative Com- 
mittee was authorized to take the necessaiy steps to bring this 
about. Acting under this authorization. Rev. Frank Mason 
North, the President of the Council, invited and appointed a 
carefully selected group of persons from the different religious 



224 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

bodies whose cooperation was essential, to serve as members 
of the General War-Time Commission of the Churches. 

The Membership of the War-Time Commission 

The Commission is made up of members of the permanent 
commissions and committees of the Federal Council^, of 
the denominational war commissions and other denominational 
war service bodies and of the interdenominational agencies 
already referred to. Its Executive Committee includes mem- 
bers of these various bodies and agencies, and its Advisory 
Council consists of representatives of the denominational war 
commissions. It is cooperating with the National Catholic 
War Council and with the Jewish Welfare Board in matters 
of common concern, such as securing the appointment of an 
adequate number of chaplains and improving moral conditions 
at home and abroad. It brings together for purposes of con- 
ference and mutual helpfulness members representing a wider 
range of religious interests than have probably ever yet cooper- 
ated for a similar purpose. 

Its Relation to the Cooperating Bodies and the Council 

The relation of the Commission to the different bodies from 
which its membership is recruited was defined in the follow- 
ing statement, approved both by its own Executive Com- 
mittee and the Administrative Committee of the Federal 
Council : 

"With the permanent Commissions of the Federal Council the 
relations of the General War-Time Commission are necessarily close 
and intimate, and in all that concerns war work the officers and 
the Commissions of the Council and the General War-Time Com- 
mission are working together. The Commission is, however, dis- 
tinguished from the regular and permanent Commissions of the 
Council : first, in its special and temporary nature ; secondly, in 
its constitution as primarily composed of members of similar tem- 
porary denominational and other agencies ; and in consequence, 
thirdly, in requiring freedom of action not necessary in the case 
of more permanent bodies. As a temporary and emergency body, 
brought into existence to help in meeting the needs of a national 
crisis, it is free to deal with each situation which may arise in 
such ways as best fulfil the purposes of its appointment. As the 
General Secretary of the Federal Council states in his volume, 
The Progress of Church Federation: 'By exercise of a certain 
freedom of relationship called for under exceptional conditions, 

0) The Commissions of the Federal Council are bodies appointed by the 
President to undertake some special form of work which requires interdenomina- 
tional cooperation. They have their own officers and organization, raise their 
own funds, and their actions do not commit the Council as a whole unless ap- 
proved by the Administrative Committee. Unlike the Council itself, which is 
a delegated body composed of official representatives appointed for the purpose 
by .the constituent organizations, the Commissions owe their existence to the 
initiative of the Federal Council, and their relation to the bodies from which their 
membership is taken varies in different cases. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 



225 



the Commission can as the case may arise unite its forces withput 
ecclesiastical limitations with those other religious bodies seeking 
the same ends, the service of the nation and of the world.' 

"While cooperating with the Commission in all matters where 
cooperation is possible and mutually advantageous, those who 
serve on its committees remain directly responsible to the bodies 
to which they belong, and it is distinctly understood that this 
primary responsibility is in no way compromised by their mem- 
bership on the Commission. This is true of all its members, 
whether belonging to the denominational war commissions, the 
interdenominational agencies, or the permanent Commissions _ of 
the Federal Council. The purpose of the War-Time Commission 
is not to replace or duplicate, still less to check, any activity di- 
rected toward a task too great for our united forces. _ On the 
contrary, it will seek to serve all by furnishing a clearing house 
of information and an agency of sympathetic coordination, through 
which the efficiency of each may be increased, its aims advanced, 
and so the Church as a whole be enabled to render the largest 
service to the nation and to the world in this great and critical 
time. When its work is done it will make final report to the 
Federal Council and to the bodies which cooperate in it and 
will be discontinued." 

Acknowledgment of Services 

We cannot take up in detail the story of the Commission's 
work without a word of personal tribute to the men whose 
clear vision and self-sacrificing labor have made it possible. 
To Dr. North and Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, to whom we 
owe the Washington meeting of the Council, in which the idea 
of the Commission first took shape ; to Mr. Fred B. Smith and 
Rev. Roy B. Guild, of the Commission on Inter-Church Federa- 
tions, to whom we owe the Pittsburgh Conference, with its 
broad survey of the field and its admirable report on the war 
program of the local church ; to Rev. Charles Stelzle, who has 
had charge of the publicity of these dififerent enterprises and 
who, in addition, has been carrying on in behalf of the Church 
as a whole an energetic temperance campaign ; to Bishop W. F. 
McDowell, Chairman of the General Committee on Army and 
Navy Chaplains, and Rev. Clyde F. Armitage, its secretary, 
who has represented the Council in dealing with the Depart- 
ments of the Government in all that concerns chaplains; to 
Rev. Sidney L. Gulick, Secretary of the Commission on Inter- 
national Justice and Goodwill ; and last but not least to Rev. 
Worth M. Tippy, Secretary of the Commission on the Church 
and Social Service, who has not only thrown himself with 
full enthusiasm into the cause of the chaplains,^ but who during 
the summer, when others were away on their vacations, or- 
ganized the Committee on Voluntary Chaplains, which was the 
direct precursor of the War-Time Commission. At a time 
when many of the dififerent agencies were feeling their way 
to find themselves in an unfamiliar field, this committee took 



226 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

the first steps to bring together representatives of the dif- 
ferent denominational war commissions. Plans were made for 
a systematic visitation of the camps; attention was called to 
the need of providing voluntary chaplains in the training camps 
and other centres for which the Government made no provision ; 
the needs of local communities were studied ; and a sympathetic 
understanding, invaluable to the later developments, was created 
by the contact of those who were engaged in these common 
tasks. Without the preliminary work done by this committee, 
the War-Time Commission could not have begun where it did. 

II. The Organization of the Commission 

The Commission met for the first time in New York on 
Thursday, September 20, 1917, and organized with Robert 
E. Speer as Chairman, Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Vice- 
Chairman, and Rev. William Adams Brown, Secretary. At 
later meetings Rev. Gaylord S. White was chosen Associate 
Secretary, and Harold H. Tryon, Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert, 
and Eric M. North, Assistant Secretaries. 

The Problem of Organization 

Two possibilities faced the Commission at its origin. It 
might enter the field as an executive agency, taking over the 
work of existing organizations and superseding them with 
a machinery of its own ; or it might regard its work as prima- 
rily interpretative and advisory, making itself a meeting- 
ground for discussion and counsel, but leaving the actual exe- 
cution of the policies agreed upon to the cooperative action 
of the agencies that were already in existence. 

The latter was obviously the wiser plan, so far as it was 
practicable. It was wiser on grounds of economy. It is 
always better to use the machiner}' that is at hand, so far as 
it will go, than to create new machinery. But it was wiser, 
too, on grounds of policy, for what was needed was 
not a single body that would relieve existing agencies of their 
immediate responsibility — a responsibility which, in the very 
nature of the case as a result of a hundred local and personal 
ties, no one else could assume — but rather a body that could 
act as counselor and guide, by furnishing a wider perspective 
and so directing into the most practicable and effective chan- 
nels the energies which were already released. It is on this 
theory that the Commission has worked. It has not built up a 
large staff, but it has tried to include in its councils and discus- 
sions men and women who are really responsible for the 
war work of the Church as a whole, that through their com- 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 227 

bined counsels it might develop the consciousness of a common 
opportunity and of a united responsibility. 

Statement of Purpose 

But it soon appeared that counsel alone was not enough. 
There were things which needed to be done which no one 
was doing, and for these it was necessary for the Commis- 
sion to make provision. This double function of the Com- 
mission as at once advisory and executive was expressed by 
the Commission at its opening meeting in the following state- 
ment : 

"It is the purpose of the Commission : 

"1. To coordinate existing and proposed activities and to bring 
them into intelligent and sympathetic relationship so as to avoid all 
waste and friction and to promote efficiency. 

"2. To suggest to the proper agency or agencies any further vi^oi'k 
called for and not being done. 

"3. To provide for or perform such vi^ork as can best be done in a 
cooperative way. 

4. To furnish means of common and united expression when such 
is desired ; and finally, 

"5. To provide a body which would be prepared to deal ina spirit 
of cooperation with the new problems of reconstruction which may 
have to be faced after the war." 

In pursuance of this policy the Commission organized itself 
into a number of different committees and entrusted to an 
Executive Committee, including representatives of all the 
interests to be unified, power to act for the Commission when 
it was not in session. 

The War-Time Task of the Church 

It will help us to set the work of these committees in their 
right relations if at the outset we remind ourselves for a 
moment of the nature of the task which the war lays upon 
the Church. 

Apart from the perennial need of fostering the higher life 
of the nation, this is as follows : 

1. To provide the ministrations of religion for the large 
number of persons, both men and women, suddenly taken from 
their accustomed surroundings and plunged into an unfa- 
miliar life. 

2. To awaken the congregations whose horizon has hitherto 
been limited to their own communion, or at most to the mis- 
sionary enterprise in the technical sense, to the new responsibil- 
ities of social ministry and reconstruction which the war has 
laid upon them. 

3. While loyally supporting our own government in the 



228 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

rig-hteous war to which we have laid our hands, to keep alive 
the international consciousness to which religion in its higher 
aspects is committed. 

This analysis of the task determines the fields in which the 
work must be carried on. 

Under 1 we have not only 

(a) The Army and Navy, but 

(b) The great army of industrial workers, many of them 

women who have been called to take the place 
of enlisted men. 

Under 2 we have to consider not only 

(a) The individual church, but 

(b) The community in which it is located, and especially 

the communities adjoining the great cantonments 
whose moral health is so important a factor for the 
welfare of the soldiers and sailors in their neighbor- 
hood. And beyond these 

(c) The millions who are in need, for whose care the 

church as a whole is responsible — the sick and the 
wounded, the prisoners and the disabled, the desti- 
tute, and the homeless both here and across the sea. 

Under 3 we touch the supreme function of the church, 
which is to Christianize the ideals of the nation and so to 
promote that consciousness of world-wide brotherhood without 
which true democracy is impossible. 

Religious Agencies in War Work: The Commissions of the Council 

Of the war work of the permanent commissions and com- 
mittees of the Council, a full report is given elsewhere. Here 
it is only necessary to say that even before the organization 
of the General War-Time Commission it was of the most 
important character. The General Committee on Army and 
Navy Chaplains was busy with the task of recommending suit- 
able chaplains to the Government^. The Commission on 
Inter-Church Federations was working out a program for 
community activity in the neighborhood of the great canton- 
ments. The Committee on Temperance was conducting a 
propaganda for nation-wide prohibition during the war. The 

(1) The General Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains is a permanent com- 
mittee including the chairmen of the several denominational chaplain committees. 
All papers of Protestants submitted in application for appointment as chaplain are 
referred to this Committee by the War and Navy Departments, and the correspond- 
ence required to determine the qualifications of the candidate is conducted by the 
secretary of the Committee through the W'ashington office of the Federal Council. 
The names of satisfactory candidates, after endorsement by the chaplain committees 
of their respective denominations, are certified to the Department, and no Protestant 
chaplains are appointed in the Regular Army, the National Army or the Navy 
without the approval of the General Committee. The Committee also cooperates 
with the Bureau of Militia Affairs in selecting new chaplains for the federalized 
National Guard. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 229 

Commission on the Church and Social Service was studying 
conditions in the camps which were not provided with chap- 
lains and considering methods of supplying this need. The 
Commission on International Justice and Goodwill was con- 
cerning itself with the larger questions of international good- 
will on which the hope of any permanent peace depends.^ The 
other Commissions, if touching the war work less directly, 
were rendering indispensable service in their respective fields 
of ministry to the higher life of the nation. 

Since the organization of the General War-Time Commis- 
sion, the resources of the permanent Commissions, both in per- 
sonnel and in equipment, have been freely put at its disposal. 
In some cases they have been recognized as committees of the 
War-Time Commission for special purposes. In other cases 
they have furnished the nuclei for new committees of a 
more inclusive character. Thus, the General Committee on 
Army and Navy Chaplains represents the War-Time Com- 
mission in all that concerns the appointment of chaplains and 
the Commission on the Church and Social Service is its com- 
mittee for conducting an investigation of industrial conditions. 
Dr. Guild, Secretary of the Commission on Inter-Church Fed- 
erations, is acting as Secretary of the Committee on Camp 
Neighborhoods, Dr. Tippy, as Secretary of the Committee on 
War-Time Work in the Local Church and Cooperation with the 
American Red Cross, Mr. Stelzle, as Secretary of the Com- 
mittee on Literature and Publicity. Others are rendering 
valuable service in other ways. 

The Army and Navy Chaplains 

It will help us to see the work of these committees in its 
true perspective if we ask ourselves for a moment what the 
other groups engaged in war work are doing, and first, the 
chaplains. 

1. The chaplain is the official representative of religion in 
the Army and Navy. He is an ordained clergyman holding 
military or naval rank as an officer, and in the Army is assigned 
to special duties by the commanding officer of the regiment 

(') In addition to the commissions already named, activities related to the 
various phases of war work are carried on by the Commissions on the Church and 
Country Life and on Christian Education. The Federal Council has also been active 
in stimulating the interest of the Churches in the support of various agencies for 
war relief, and has organized a voluntary committee for the Care of French Mothers 
and Children, to cooperate with French committees. The Council has coordinated 
the agencies seeking to sustain and develop Protestant work in France and has 
arranged for the reception of the two French chaplains who have been in 
America during the fall and winter as representatives of the French Protestant 
churches. In cooperation with several departments of the Government, par- 
ticularly the Department of Agriculture, the Food Cornmission, and the Com- 
mittee on Public Information, pamphlets numbering millions in the aggregate 
have been mailed to the pastors of Protestant churches from the office of the 
Federal Council. 



230 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

to which he is attached. He enters the Army with the grade 
of first Heutenant, and may rise to be major in the course of his 
service. In the Navy he begins as junior lieutenant and rises to 
captain. The chaplains are apportioned among the different de- 
nominations in the country on an arithmetical ratio which at the 
present time assigns thirty-six per cent to the Catholics and 
sixty-four per cent to the Protestants and apportions the 
Protestant chaplains among their various religious bodies in the 
ratio of their membership. When, however, the chaplain is 
finally recommended by the Federal Council's Committee he 
becomes the representative of all the churches and in the very 
nature of the case must act unreservedly as such. Twenty 
chaplains at large have been recently added in the army to 
provide for the Jews and other religious bodies not represented 
in the present apportionment. Before the present war the 
number of chaplains both in the Army and Navy was one 
to every twelve hundred enlisted men. It still remains this 
in the Navy, but with the increase of the size of the infantry 
regiment from twelve hundred to thirty-six hundred men, the 
number of chaplains in the Army has become proportionately 
less. A recent order of the department has made possible a fur- 
ther increase in the number of chaplains to cover units not now 
provided for by law, but even with this increase the number 
of chaplains in proportion to the number of enlisted men has 
been very largely reduced and is totally inadequate to the 
present need. 

During peace times the duties of the chaplain were not 
onerous and his existence had largely dropped out of the 
consciousness of the Church. But with the advent of the war 
the importance of the chaplain's function has become apparent. 
He is the pastor of the unit to which he is assigned. When 
the men leave for the front the chaplain accompanies them. 
Upon his character and fidelity to his duty the morale of the 
men is in no small measure dependent. He is with them in 
the trenches before they go "over the top" and is among the 
first to welcome the wounded when they are brought into 
the emergency station for treatment. 

It is clear then that one of the first duties of the Church 
is to see that the number of chaplains is adequate, their per- 
sonnel of the highest quality, and their equipment sufficient to 
enable them to discharge their duties effectively. 

Here unfortunately we find ourselves at a disadvantage, 
and this in two ways. In the first place, the rapid increase in 
the size of the new armies without a corresponding change in 
the law governing the number of chaplains has left many units 
without chaplains and thrown the responsibility for the re- 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 231 

ligious care of the men upon other agencies. And secondly, 
whereas in other armies the chaplains are organized into a 
corps under a chaplain general, or other leader, whose function 
it is to care for their interests, to promote their welfare, and to 
guard their efficiency, here the chaplains remain individuals 
attached to special regiments without any representative to 
speak for them in matters of common concern. 

This is a condition which needs to be changed and we are 
glad to say that steps are being taken to change it. In the 
Navy Secretary Daniels has appointed Chaplain J. B. Frazier as 
his representative in all that concerns the chaplains, and he is 
taking up his new work energetically and effectively. He has 
entered into sympathetic relations with the General Committee 
on Army and Navy Chaplains of the Federal Council, which has 
put at his disposal one of its offices and is cooperating with 
him in every possible way. 

In the Army no such arrangement has as yet been made, 
though it is hoped that before long something of this kind 
may be done there\ In the meantime various committees 
of the Council and of the War-Time Commission are dealing 
with different aspects of the chaplain situation. The General 
Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains has been recognized 
by the Government as its adviser in the appointment of 
Protestant chaplains. Legislation has been introduced into 
Congress looking to an increase in their numbers, and the 
matter of the equipment and status of chaplains is being 
carefully considered. A training school for their practical 
preparation before entering service has been planned by the 
Federal Council Committee. 

The Young Men's Christian Association 

Next to the chaplains in the directness of their approach to 
the war task are the interdenominational agencies which spe- 
cialize in work for young men and young women. Of the 
splendid work done by the Young Men's Christian Association 
— work for our soldiers and sailors both here and across the 
sea — there is no need to speak at length, simply because it is 
already so much in the public eye that we can take its work 
for granted. Too much credit cannot be given to the leaders 
of this great organization for the foresight with which they 
anticipated the crisis that was pending, for the skill with 
which they laid their plans to meet it, for the ample re- 
sources both of men and of means which they have gathered 
to their support, and for the unique service which they are 
rendering. That service, roughly speaking, is of three kinds. 

(1) Since this was written, Major Gregory, who has been detailed by the War De- 
partment to take charge of the appointment of chaplains, is giving attention to these 
matters. 



232 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

First of all and most familiar to us is the work for our 
own soldiers and sailors in the camps, cantonments, and naval 
stations. Through its recognition by the United States Govern- 
ment as the representative of the Government in welfare work 
within the camps, the Association has had a unique opportunity 
which it has employed to the full. Its leaders have been 
able to make themselves in a very true sense representatives 
of the whole church and have cooperated in amicable ways 
not only with the different Protestant bodies, but with the 
Catholics and the Jews as well. 

No less important is its work across the sea, not only for 
our own army but for that of our Allies in France, Russia, and 
Italy. Here again a wide field for usefulness has opened to 
the Association of which it is making enlightened use. Only 
recently the call has come from General Pershing for a large 
number of secretaries for work with the American army in 
France. The French Government is asking for thirteen hun- 
dred buildings and will need five hundred secretaries. The 
Italian Government will need another hundred. Many have 
gone to Russia and, had conditions remained as they were a 
few weeks ago, no less than two hundred would have been 
needed there. 

Finally, there is the work for prisoners of war, a work 
which has been so persuasively presented by Dr. Mott that 
I need only refer to it here, and of which it may safely be 
said that no wiser, more effective, and more Christlike piece 
of service has been rendered by any group of men in our 
generation. 

Other Interdenominational Agencies 

But signal as is the service of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, it is not the only interdenominational agency 
which must find a place on the war program of the Church. 
There are the Sunday schools which have recently combined 
their different associations in a National Sunday School War 
Council. There are the Young People's Societies, which are 
asking themselves what is their part in the church's work, and 
have formed the Interdenominational Young People's Com- 
mission, a national organization to outline their programs. 
There are the temperance societies, which are working for 
national prohibition during the war; there is the American 
Bible Society, which is raising a fund of $400,CX)0 to put the 
Scriptures in the hands of every enlisted man. There is the 
Salvation Army which is doing a large work for the troops 
across the sea as well as some at home. And there is 
the Young Women's Christian Association, whose unique and 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 233 

most responsible function in the present crisis is not always 
as clearly recognized as its importance deserves. 

It was perhaps only natural that in the preoccupation of the 
nation with the pressing needs of the enlisted men, the true 
function of the Young Women's Christian Association in this 
time of crisis should have been misconceived. It has been 
thought of in many quarters as representing women's ministry 
to men, and it has a ministry to render of this kind. Through 
its hostess houses it has provided places where the families 
of the enlisted men might meet their sons and husbands under 
pleasant surroundings. Through its cafeteria it has provided 
good things to eat in the neighborhood of the camps. But 
these are only incidental to its main purpose, which is to 
care for the women who with the men share the responsibility 
and burden of the war. The Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation is not an adjunct of the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation. It is the Church caring for its women — the girls in 
the camp neighborhoods dazzled by the glamour of the troops 
and, in their desire to show their sympathy and admiration 
in practical ways, subjected to temptations whose gravity we 
cannot over-estimate ; the women in industry taken from their 
homes and plunged into unfamiliar work amid strange sur- 
roundings ; women of all kinds and of all ages, facing the 
new problems which the war is laying upon their sex. Here 
is a sphere, the importance and the magnitude of which are 
scarcely less than that which the young men have occupied. 

The Church and the Y. M, C. A. 

It is only natural that in the course of the attempts of these 
different agencies to adjust themselves to the new tasks, prob- 
lems should arise. These problems are of two kinds. In 
part they are problems of adjustment having to do with the 
delimitation of territory ; in part they are problems of defini- 
tion growing out of differing conceptions of the sphere for 
which each is responsible. 

We may illustrate these in the case of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. More important than any specific 
thing that the Association has done has been its ability to fire 
the imagination of the public with the possibilities of Christian 
service. It has made its program of ministry so simple, so 
direct and so appealing, that multitudes who have cared little 
or nothing for the Church hitherto have responded to its appeal 
and furnished it with resources in men and in money, which 
have enabled it to meet the emergency for which other agencies 
were unprepared. 

But in this very success there lurks a danger. It is not 



234 FEDERAL COUNCIL OP' THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

merely the danger of diverting attention from other organiza- 
tions whose work, if less dramatic, is in its place no less es- 
sential — although that is a real danger. It is the danger that in 
its emphasis upon the Church's agencies men may lose sight of 
the larger whole, of which each individual agency is a part. 
Greater than any organization, greater than all organizations 
put together, is the Church itself which is the mother of them 
all, the Church whose hidden life they reveal and of whose 
spirit they should be the interpreter. When men begin to 
contrast the Church and the Association to the disadvantage of 
the former they not only show a complete misapprehension of 
the spirit which animates the Association leaders ; they are 
creating an attitude of mind which is full of peril for the 
future of both. 

It is all the more important that the true relation between 
the Association and the Church should be clearly r-ecognized 
because of the limitations imposed upon the former by its con- 
stitution. As an organization of laymen it has hitherto limited 
its sphere to forms of service which laymen can render. But 
the Church consists of clergy as well as laity, and for its full 
expression requires the cooperation of both. In theory this 
cooperation is secured in the camps through the chaplains who, 
as the official representatives of the churches, administer the 
sacraments, conduct regular services and have pastoral over- 
sight over the men. But where, as is often the case, there are 
no chaplains available, the Association becomes the only repre- 
sentative of religion in the camp and must either confine its 
religious work to such services as laymen can render or rely 
upon the assistance of visiting clergymen coming from 
without.^ 

In this situation the churches have come to the Association's 
help in a number of different ways. In the first place, they 
have set apart a number of their most trusted leaders to serve 
as religious workers in the camps, men who because of their 
maturity of judgment and practical wisdom are able even 
while observing the limitations which their position puts upon 
them, to exercise pastoral oversight over the enlisted men and 
keep them in touch with the home churches. Secondly, they 
have supplied visiting preachers who have cooperated with 
the chaplains and the Young Men's Christian Association 
secretaries in Sunday and week-day services in the camps, and, 
where no chaplains were present, have cared for the admin- 
istration of the sacraments in the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation huts. And thirdly, they have designated a certain 

(]) In cases where neither chaplains nor outside clergymen are available the 
Association allows its religious work secretaries who are clergymen to administer 
the sacraments and to perform other ministerial functions. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 235 

number of men to represent the church in the communities 
adjoining the camps and in cooperation with the chaplains, 
the Young Men's Christian Association secretaries, and the 
local clergy, to act as camp pastors for the men of their own 
communion within the camps. In some cases the camp pastor 
has been recognized by the commanding officer as a, voluntary 
chaplain and assigned to some unit temporarily without a 
chaplain. In other cases he has been associated with one of the 
regular chaplains as his assistant. In still others he has found 
access to the camp through the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, being assigned a residence in one of its huts and 
cooperating with its staff in the religious work of the camp. 
So far as time and space permit, he has been free to use the 
rooms of the Association for personal conference and for the 
administration of the sacraments, and his gifts as a preacher 
have been gladly made use of in the Association's services. 

The Denominational War-Time Commissions 

This reference to camp pastors leads us to consider another 
group of agencies engaged in war work, namely, the denomi- 
national war service commissions. 

When the war broke out it was inevitable that the churches 
should feel a direct and personal responsibility for meeting 
the call made upon them for patriotic service. The response 
took different forms. Some of the religious bodies, such as 
the Methodists and Southern Baptists, originally put the task 
upon the existing home missionary organizations. Others, and 
these the majority, like the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, 
the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Lutherans and the like, 
created war commissions to represent them in the emergency. 
A list of these commissions and their officers is given below. 
They are of various sizes, composed of both clergy and laity, 
but are alike in this, that they have been appointed by the 
ecclesiastical authorities of the various communions to act 
for them in all that concerns war work. 

The action of the churches in establishing these commis- 
sions has been criticized in some quarters as though it were an 
expression of narrow denominationalism, but such criticism 
entirely misses the mark. If the Church is to function at all 
in the war, it must function in part at least through the churches 
of which it is composed. No doubt it is a lamentable fact 
that the war finds the Church divided, and it would be a far 
better thing if there could be but a single organization through 
which all alike might function. But since this is not the case 
it is clear that we must use the agencies we have. There 
is work to be done which the Church alone can do, which can be 



236 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

done most effectively by those who know the resources, the 
habits and the traditions of each of the different bodies whose 
cooperation is necessary. 

In the first place, there is the task of reaching the individual 
church member and bringing home to him his personal res- 
ponsibility in the present crisis ; but for this the local church 
must be organized. This is a work for which the denomina- 
tional war commissions are peculiarly fitted because of their 
power of direct access to those who must be reached. Through 
correspondence, through literature, and through personal appeal 
they are addressing themselves to the ministers of their own 
communions and urging them to unite their congregations in 
a program of war service. 

In the second place, there is the need of strengthening weak 
churches in the neighborhood of the cantonments and other 
centres where troops are congregated. Experience has shown 
that, when Sunday comes, the soldiers like to leave the camp 
and find their way to worship in a real church. But the local 
church is often weak and uninviting and needs to be rein- 
forced by resources coming from without. This is being done 
in various ways, sometimes by the enlargement of the plant, 
sometimes by the supply of additional workers, not infrequently 
by joining with other bodies in a centre of common activity. 

In the third place, the Church has a responsibility for the 
pastoral care of her sons who have enlisted. This she is dis- 
charging in part by a system of correspondence carried on 
through the local church, in part through the appointment 
of the camp pastors already referred to. 

Last, but not least in its importance, is the service which 
the war commissions can render as a channel of communica- 
tion between the churches and the different government 
agencies charged with war work. Such agencies, for example, 
are the Food Administration, the Red Cross, the Committee 
on Public Information. For the success of its war program 
the Government is dependent in the last analysis upon the 
loyal cooperation of the individual citizen, and in securing this, 
the aid of the churches is essential. 

Problems of Adjustment 

It was. of course, inevitable that the attempts to meet these 
and similar needs should have led to a certain amount of con- 
fusion and overlapping. Problems of serious importance have 
emerged which require tact and patience for their solu- 
tion. There is, in the first place, the problem of the relation 
of the war commissions, which are temporary bodies, to the 
permanent agencies of their own churches. How can the ap- 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 237 

peal to sacrifice which the war has made and which is being 
so generously responded to, be made to reinforce rather than 
to weaken the permanent activities of the church? Secondly, 
there is the relation of the communions to one another. How 
can overlapping be avoided? How can the fields be wisely 
partitioned? In what ways can each represent all? Thirdly, 
there is the problem of the relation of the denominational 
bodies to the interdenominational agencies which are already 
functioning efi^ectively and which represent the Church as a 
whole rather than any particular branch of it. And finally, 
there is the relation of the religious forces in general to the 
Government agencies, like the War and Navy Departments' 
Commissions on Training Camp Activities, and their War 
Camp Community Service conducted by the Playground and 
Recreation Association of America, which concern themselves 
with the task of community organization. 

To take but two illustrations of many. There is the question 
of denominationalism in the camps. How far may provision 
be made for services primarily designed for the men of a 
single communion? In what sense can the camp pastors ap- 
pointed by and responsible to a single Christian body be used 
for the services which shall include all? 

Again, there is the question of the relation of the com- 
munity organizers of the War Camp Community Service to ex- 
isting Church Federations. How far may such a federation be 
used as a nucleus for community organization? How far is 
it advisable that their identity should be merged in a new and 
more inclusive group? These are but samples of the kind 
of problem which is emerging on every side and which re- 
quires tact and patience for its solution. 

In the situation thus briefly described the War-Time Com- 
mission finds its opportunity. It is the aim of the Commis- 
sion to visualize the work of the Church as a whole, to see 
each of its parts in its relation to the others, and by bringing 
about personal contact between the workers in the different 
fields, to secure a better understanding and a heartier co- 
operation than would otherwise be possible. It remains to 
ask how far it has succeeded in accomplishing what it set out 
to do. 

III. The Work of the Commission 

It will help us to judge the work of the Commission in- 
telligently if we consider it under the following- heads : The 
Program of the Commission ; Undertakings and Achievements ; 
The Problems of the Future. 



238 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

The Program of the Commission 

The first duty of the Commission was to map out the field 
which it proposed to enter. Three kinds of work seemed 
clearly to lie within its scope, which we may describe respec- 
tively as : survey ; interpretation ; cooperation. It was neces- 
sary, in the first place, to secure accurate knowledge of the 
religious work already being carried on by the different 
agencies, and of the needs which were as yet unmet. It was 
necessary, in the second place, to share this information with 
those who were working in each part of the field, as well as 
with the general public which had an interest in knowing what 
the church as a whole was doing; and finally, it was neces- 
sary to create the machinery for doing some things for which 
no adequate provision had as yet been made. 

Survey of the Field 

Of these the first manifestly took precedence. Without ac- 
curate knowledge as to what was actually being done or 
planned, it was impossible either to advise wisely or to act 
effectively. But at the time the Commission began its work 
such information was nowhere accessible. Each of the com- 
missions and councils had its own survey department study- 
ing the field from the point of view of its own need and spe- 
cial task ; but there was no one whose business it was to know 
the field as a whole, no one who was studying what each was 
doing in its relation to all the others and collating that informa- 
tion in such a form as to make it equally available for all. 
Accordingly, the first thing which the Commission set itself 
to do was to fill this gap. Its Committee on Survey, through 
Mr, Cavert, its secretary, has collated all the information in 
the possession of the different war commissions, and is sup- 
plementing this partly through communication with the in- 
dividuals and groups who are visiting the camps, partly 
through correspondence with selected individuals in different 
parts of the country, through whom exact information may be 
obtained. It is our plan, so far as this information is secured, 
to put it at the disposal of each of the cooperating bodies and 
to keep them informed from time to time of such changes as 
may occur. Up to the present time we have been able to 
do this in the cantonments and the National Guard camps, and 
we are now at work on the Regular Army and the smaller 
posts scattered over the country, many of which are without 
regular chaplains or other ministers of religion. 

What has been done for the troops on this side of the water 
needs to be done for the troops across the sea. Here too- 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 239 

there are problems growing out of the presence of different 
agencies working in the same field, and here too the first con- 
dition for their satisfactory solution is accurate knowledge. 
It is hoped in the near future to establish relations between 
the Commission and representatives of the different agencies 
engaged in religious work across the sea, which will make it 
possible for us to extend our survey to include these as well. 
The first steps have already been taken in the appointment of 
a Committee on Investigation of Conditions in France, whose 
duty it shall be "to study the situation in France as it affects 
the work of the voluntary chaplains and other representatives 
of the churches, and to advise the Commission as to what 
action, if any, should be taken." 

Interpretation and Cooperation 

Having gained our knowledge, the next thing was to share 
it. Here there are two interests to be considered. First, the 
general public needs to be informed as to what the church is 
doing. Second, between the groups at work in different parts 
of the field common knowledge and understanding must obtain, 
as between the different denominational war commissions ; the 
denominational war commissions and the Association leaders; 
the Protestant religious forces and the corresponding bodies 
among the Roman Catholics and the Jews; and finally, 
between the religious forces as a whole and Government 
agencies, like the Commission on Training Camp Activities, 
charged with the moral and social welfare of the soldiers. In 
the case of all these groups it was desirable to establish natural 
points of contact which would make for a sympathetic under- 
standing, and much of the time and energy during the weeks 
that have passed have been spent in trying to bring this about. 

This has been done in a number of different ways. It has 
been done in part through committees of conference, such as 
the committee on conference with the Young Men's and 
Young Women's Christian Associations and a similar com- 
mittee on conference with the Playground Association. A 
more effective method has been the formation of joint com- 
mittees in which members of different bodies have been as- 
sociated in some common work. But above all, it has been 
done through the personal contact of individuals as those who 
have been approaching the same general task from different 
angles have met for conference on the problems which were 
common to all. 

It is too soon to make a definite catalogue of the results 
which have already come from such conferences but this may 
be said with confidence, that they have led to the clearing up 



240 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

of not a few misunderstandings, and to the taking of steps 
which will in time clear up others. But more important than 
any specific things accomplished is the closer sympathy which 
has resulted from personal acquaintance, and the wider out- 
look which has come with larger vision. 

This has been notably true of the relation between the church 
commissions and the Association leaders. Closer acquaintance 
with the problems which confront the latter has led the repre- 
sentatives of the churches to a more sympathetic understand- 
ing of the difficulties the Association faces, and conversely in 
its policy the Association is more and more coming to recog- 
nize the importance of the interests for which the church 
commissions stand, and is seeking ways to conserve them. 
In the instructions recently sent from headquarters to the 
secretaries on the field the importance of the work of the camp 
pastors is recognized and the secretaries are directed, so far 
as is practicable under the rules laid down by the Government, 
to give the representatives of the churches every facility for 
the prosecution of their work in the camps. On the other 
hand, the church leaders recognize that under normal cir- 
cumstances the work of the camp pastor should be to relate 
the men in the camp to the religious forces functioning out- 
side, and that the best results can be secured only through the 
harmonious cooperation of all the religious workers within 
and without the camps in a single program which assigns to 
each its appropriate place. 

Literature and Publicity 

Of publicity work of a more formal kind there is as yet 
little to report. A brief account of the Commission's aims has 
been printed, a series of bulletins authorized, plans are under 
discussion for articles in periodicals and the daily press, but 
little has been done as yet to put the plan into effect. This 
has been due, not only to the pressure of work during the 
early days of the Commission's activity, but still more to the 
fact that with reference to the matters of greatest public 
interest conditions were changing so rapidly that one could 
never be sure that what we had to tell of the work today 
would be true of the work of tomorrow. Recently, however, 
the situation has changed for the better. The period of ex- 
periment is passing and it is possible to begin to draw definite 
conclusions. As the mists dissolve and the outlines of a unified 
plan appear, the need of publicity becomes pressing, and the 
Commission through its Committee on Literature and Pub- 
licity is planning to give this branch of the work the atten- 
tion its importance deserves. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 241 

Besides these general matters the attention of the Commis- 
sion has been given to a number of special problems where 
joint action has seemed necessary. Some idea of the number 
and extent of these may be gained from the list of committees 
which is appended to this report. In some cases we are able 
to report definite accomplishment; in others only a beginning 
has been made. 

Undertakings and Achievements: Community Organization in 
Camp Neighborhoods 

And first, of the things accomplished. First on the list I 
would put the work which has been done by the Committee on 
Camp Neighborhoods. This is a committee consisting of 
executive officers of the difi^erent war commissions, as well 
as of members of the Federal Council's Commission on Inter- 
Church Federations. Under the leadership of President C. A. 
Barbour, who is not only Chairman of the Committee but 
also in charge of the selection of the religious work secretaries 
of the Young Men's Christian Association, a plan has been 
worked out for coordinating the religious forces both inside 
and outside of the camp, and through Dr. Guild, the Secre- 
tary of the Committee, arrangements have been made for a 
systematic visitation of those centres where it would appear 
that the forces on the ground are not working together as 
they should. A stafif of men is being developed who will go 
to these camp communities not as representing any single 
denomination, but the Church as a whole. In this connec- 
tion a careful study has been made of the work of camp 
pastors in their relation both to the workers inside the camps, 
and especially to the communities outside. Plans have been 
made for conferences of camp pastors to be held in some 
southern cities in January, in which the leaders of the different 
war commissions of the southern churches are actively par- 
ticipating. Through this committee relations are being estab- 
lished with the community organizers of the War Camp Com- 
munity Service and the function of the Church in neighborhood 
work is being defined. 

One of the by-products of these conferences is a plan for 
the unification of the religious forces in New York City, a 
field which, owing to the pressure of outside interests, has 
been largely neglected, but the importance of which may be 
gauged from the statement that its parish (understanding by 
this term the group of camps whose members find their \vay 
naturally to New York when they have leave) embraces 150,- 
000 troops, and some 40,000 are found on its streets every day. 

At the request of the denominational war commissions a 



242 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

sub-committee of the Committee on Camp Neighborhoods has 
been charged with responsibiHty for cooperative building en- 
terprises where such seemed practicable. In several cases 
a number of different communions have joined in the erection 
of a building for housing their representatives who are working 
in and about the camps, and others are contemplated. Such 
buildings are in process of erection at Camp Devens, Camp 
Dix, and most recently at Camp Upton. At Ayer four com- 
munions have joined in the erection of a church headquarters 
outside the camp. At Wrightstown a parish house is being 
built on ground owned by the Episcopalians, in the expense and 
maintenance of which four different communions cooperate. 
The Episcopalians have offered the use of their church, which 
is adjoining, for purposes of worship. A similar proposal is 
under consideration at Camp Sherman. At Camp Upton, ow- 
ing to the fact that there is no community adjoining the camp, 
permission has been given to erect a church headquarters within 
the camp, and four communions have united in the erection of 
a chapel and parish house on ground set apart by the Govern- 
ment adjoining the Young Men's Christian Association admin- 
istration building. 

The Needs of the Chaplains 

From the first the needs of the chaplains have engaged the 
attention of the Commission. In theory, as we have seen, the 
chaplain is the official representative of religion in the army. 
In practice he holds an anomalous and unsatisfactory position. 
His relations to the church of which he is the official represent- 
ative are loose and ill-defined. On the funds so liberally contrib- 
uted to equip the religious workers of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association he can make no claim. From the Government 
he receives only his commission ; and whereas all other branches 
of the service have been elevated in dignity and in numbers to 
meet the new emergency of the war, his status in all respects re- 
mains as it was in the days of the Spanish War and before. 

It is difficult to exaggerate the infelicity of this situation. 
It affects not only the chaplain himself, but all the other re- 
ligious bodies which are at work for the soldiers. As we have 
seen, it devolves upon the Association, a lay organization, 
responsibility which in theory it is not qualified to assume. It 
is a constant challenge to the churches to seek to secure by 
indirect means representation in the camp which, so long as 
the chaplains are not appointed, is granted them in theory, but 
is denied them in fact. It complicates the work of those who 
are planning for the unification of the religious forces in and 
about the camps, since so long as the status of the chaplains is 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 243 

undetermined, and their numbers uncertain, one of the most 
important factors in the situation remains unknown. 

The remedy for this state of things is obvious. It is that we 
follow the example of all other countries which have chaplains 
and create a corps of chaplains under a responsible head who 
can represent the chaplain's interests, provide for his adequate 
training and equipment, secure his assignment to the place 
where he is most needed, and confer with the responsible heads 
of the other religious forces at work in and about the camps 
in matters of general religious policy affecting the army. Until 
this is secured, all else is a palliative. To increase the number 
of chaplains without altering their status may relieve but will 
not remove the difficulty. 

In cooperation with the commissions of the Catholics and of 
the Jews the War-Time Commission is seeking to secure from 
the Departments and from Congress action which will remedy 
this state of affairs. In the meantime through its existing com- 
mittees it is doing what it can to advance the interests of the 
chaplains under the present law. The General Committee 
on Army and Navy Chaplains, in addition to its work in rec- 
ommending suitable candidates for appointment, is in confer- 
ence with the Adjutant General's office as to assignment of 
chaplains. A special Committee on the Equipment of Chaplains 
is in correspondence with the newly appointed chaplains as to 
their need of equipment and is bringing these needs to the 
attention of the churches to which they belong. In this connec- 
tion the Committee has prepared a carefully selected list of 
things most needed with their prices based upon the results of 
an extended correspondence with those who have had most ex- 
perience. A Committee on Voluntary Chaplains has been con- 
sidering the possibility of securing from the Government the 
appointment of voluntary chaplains serving without pay in 
such units as are at present without regular chaplains. Repre- 
sentatives of the three committees meet as a Joint Committee 
on Chaplains to consider the matters affecting the welfare of the 
chaplains not otherwise provided for. 

Voluntary Chaplains 

The question of voluntary chaplains^ is so important and 
at the same time so complicated that it may be worth while to 
say a word about it here. When the war broke out it was 
found, as we have seen, that many important units were un- 

(') The name voluntary chaplain is used to denote a clergyman appointed 
by the Commandant of a camp or other military post to act as temporary chap- 
lain, or assistant to the regular chaplain. By camp pastor is meant a clergyman 
appointed _ by a denominational war commission to reinforce the service of the 
churches in the neighborhood of a camp, and, in cooperation with the chaplains 
and _Y. M. C. A. secretaries, to render pastoral service to men of his own com- 
munion within the camp. 



244 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

provided with chaplains, notably the officers' training camps, 
and a special committee was appointed in the effort to meet 
this need. In not a few cases action was taken by the com- 
mandants who on their own authority appointed visiting clergy- 
men camp chaplains, and in some cases nominated to this posi- 
tion a religious secretary of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation. Since the appointment of camp pastors, some of these 
have been recognized as voluntary chaplains, either being as- 
signed to regular units which are temporarily without chap- 
lains, or being made assistants to the existing chaplains. Such 
action, while relieving the immediate exigency, leaves many 
important questions unanswered, as for example, the follow- 
ing: What shall be the relation of the voluntary chaplain to 
the regular chaplain, when he shall be appointed? What shall 
be the relation of the camp pastor assigned to a definite regi- 
ment to the denominational commission which pays his salary ? 
How far may he rightly be regarded as a representative of his 
own communion and hold a pastoral relationship to the men 
of that communion belonging to other units than that to which 
he is assigned? Shall voluntary chaplains or camp pastors 
wear uniforms, and, if so, of what kind? Shall they have 
military rank? These are only samples of questions still un- 
answered, as to which the experience of the next few weeks 
and months will doubtless shed much light. 

The Work of the Local Churches 

Another matter which has engaged the attention of the 
Commission is the preparation of a program for the local 
church. So many different bodies are appealing to the churches 
for aid that some correlation would seem to be necessary. In 
many cases this correlation can be effected through the in- 
dividual denominational war commissions, but there are many 
churches which do not have such war commissions, and there 
are great common interests, such as that of the devotional life, 
the Red Cross, temperance, and the fight against the social 
evil, which need for their effective presentation the united sup- 
port of the church as a whole. Through its Committee on 
War-Time Work in the Local Church and Cooperation with the 
Red Cross the Commission has been working at this problem. 
It has prepared a program which can be sent to the local 
churches through the denominational war commissions where 
desired, and in other ways it is acting as a means of com- 
munication between the different relief agencies and the 
churches. An example in point is the recent appeal for Armen- 
ian and Syrian relief, of which more than 60,000 copies were 
sent out through the Commission. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION, 245 

What is true of the church in general is notably true of the 
country church. Here there are wide areas which are not 
being- reached by existing agencies, and the problem of how to 
bring home to the churches in these communities their respon- 
sibility for war work is one which is engaging the attention 
of the Commission, and as to which it is hoped later to report 
a definite plan. 

Moral Welfare of the Army and Navy 

Still another matter which has engaged the attention of the 
Commission has been that of the moral conditions in the com- 
munities surrounding the camps. In this country there are 
many agencies which are actively engaged in the fight against 
vice, and with these the Commission is cooperating through 
its Committee on Health and Morals, and its Committee on 
Camp Neighborhoods. But the conditions abroad are not so 
easy to handle, and the reports which have been coming to this 
country have given us grave concern. A small informal com- 
mittee has been formed, including Father Burke, of the Na- 
tional Catholic War Commission, Colonel Cutler, of the Jewish 
Welfare Board, Dr. Mott, of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, Dr. Speer, Bishop Perry, and the Secretary of the War- 
Time Commission, which has been in conference with Sec- 
retary Baker and with Mr. Fosdick on this matter, and cer- 
tain definite steps have been taken to improve conditions, as to 
which it will be possible to report more fully a little later. 
As a result of this common action contacts have been established 
which it is hoped may bear fruit in similar action with refer- 
ence to other matters of common interest. 

In addition to its work for improved moral conditions, the 
Commission has taken an active part in the agitation for the 
restriction of the sale of liquor during the war. A petition to 
Congress urging nation-wide prohibition during the war has 
been prepared by a special committee of the Commission, 
which has been submitted to the different denominational com- 
missions and interdenominational bodies and been approved by 
a number of them. When all the responses have been re- 
ceived, it will be brought before Congress. 

Work for Special Groups 

The needs of the workers in industrial communities have 
been the subject of earnest thought and discussion. To the 
Federal Council's Commission on Social Service has been en- 
trusted the responsibility of working out a plan for defining 
the church's responsibility in such communities and for devis- 
ing means through which the cooperation of the permanent 



246 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

agencies of the church, notably the great Home Mission Boards, 
can be secured for putting it into effect. 

Other matters which have engaged the attention of the 
Commission have been the care of interned ahens and provi- 
sion for the welfare of the negro troops. Through a sub- 
committee of which Rev. Frederick H. Knubel is chairman, 
arrangements have been made for providing the ministry of 
religion for prisoners of war, who are now interned in this 
country, by clergymen of their own faith and language. 
Under Bishop W. P. Thirkield an effective committee has been 
formed which is studying the conditions of the negro troops 
and bringing their needs to the proper authorities for action. 
Professor John R. Hawkins of Washington has been engaged 
as field agent of this committee and is doing excellent work 
in the camps. 

Mention should finally be made of the open letter sent to 
the churches through the different war commissions, request- 
ing them to set apart the three days following Thanksgiving 
as special days of prayer — Friday as a day of confession ; 
Saturday, of supplication ; and Sunday, of intercession. Cord- 
ial response was received to this appeal from the different war 
commissions, many of which took independent action on their 
own account. A copy of the letter is attached to this report. 

The Problems o£ the Future 

It is clear from this brief survey of the Commission's work 
that most of its time thus far has been given to matters of 
organization and machinery. This has been inevitable under 
the circumstances ; yet it would be a mistake to conclude that 
the larger matters which were in the minds of those who 
constituted the Commission have been lost sight of. Beyond the 
immediate exigency which calls for instant action there are 
permanent interests to which the church is committed. When 
every camp is provided with its due quota of workers, clerical 
and lay, and all the religious forces in the communities adja- 
cent are duly mobilized ; when every family in every church 
is practising economy in food and coal, and every church mem- 
ber is contributing to the Red Cross and to the other relief 
funds, the church will still have left her greatest work undone 
unless her voice is heard in witness to those ideals of brother- 
hood and service to which her divine Master has committed 
her. Besides the material reconstruction which must follow 
the war, there will be need of a reconstruction of spirit which 
is no less important and even more difficult. But for this 
even more than for the more immediate tasks there is need 
of wisdom and unity. If up to this time we have addressed 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 247 

no message to the churches except to reinforce the President's 
Thanksgiving- proclamation with a call to prayer, it has been 
not simply because we have felt that the time called for 
deeds rather than for words ; it has been even more because 
we have believed that in our common approach to the tasks 
nearest at hand we should gain experience which would fit 
us to attack with added wisdom and courage the new and 
larger tasks which lie ahead. 

This expectation has not been disappointed. During the 
months that we have been working together we have learned 
many things. To attempt to formulate these at this time would 
be premature ; but it may not be inappropriate to suggest one 
or two of the more obvious. 

Individual Initiative and Cooperative Effort 

For one thing we have learned the need of leaving scope 
for individual initiative. There are more ways of doing things 
than one. and any plan from above which ignores the varia- 
tions of the local situation is bound to fail. "The farther you 
get from headquarters, the better things are going'," — such is 
the report which has come to us from more than one visitor. 
This indeed is only what was to be expected. Our chief diffi- 
culties in conference have grown out of lack of exact informa- 
tion as to local conditions. But while we were hesitating 
as to what ought to be done, the men on the ground have been 
acting, and in nine cases out of ten, they have acted rightly. 

Here as elsewhere personality is the key to success. Whether 
he be chaplain, Young Men's Christian Association secretary, 
or camp pastor, the man of vision and courage will succeed 
and is succeeding. Whatever theoretical difficulties remain we 
are agreed in this that for every important piece of work 
which needs to be done we should pick the best man we can 
find and trust him to the limit. 

This does not mean, of course, that machinery is unim- 
portant or conferences useless, but only that we must not 
ask of them more than they can do. To create machinery 
for effective social action takes time, and this is doubly true 
under democracy. In this respect the Church stands on the 
same footing as the State and should be judged by the same 
standards. We are told that the Church has failed, and there 
is a sense in which this is true. But if so, it is in the same 
sense in which the State has failed. The inefficiency with which 
we are reproached is a by-product of our liberty. We have 
won the right to think and to act for ourselves. We have 
not yet learned to think and act together. 

But we are learning. This is the one thing that matters. 
Those who look beneath the surface and measure movements 



248 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

by their tendency rather than by their present attainment 
have every reason for encouragement. In the Church, as in 
the State, we find a disposition to subordinate private ends 
for the common good. Indeed one chief cause of our em- 
barrassment has arisen from the many who wish to serve. 
It is this instinct of service which is responsible for the crea- 
tion of the different war commissions with their resulting 
problems. It is all the more important to remember that the 
same instinct is working for unity. Bodies which have hith- 
erto held aloof from one another have sunk their differences 
and come together under united leadership. Men are work- 
ing together in the War-Time Commission who have not 
hitherto found it possible to cooperate with one another. Diffi- 
culties we have found in plenty, but they have been difficulties 
of method rather than of goodwill. In time they will be 
overcome, as similar difficulties are being overcome in the 
State. 

It is important that this should be understood. The Church 
has sins enough upon her conscience. She should not be 
blamed for that which she has done well. We are told that 
she has abdicated her function as leader and left her vacant 
place to the Young Men's Christian Association ; but in fact, 
the reverse is the truth. It is to the credit of the Church 
that in this time of crisis when quick and effective action was 
a prime necessity, she turned at once to the organization which 
was best qualified to render this service. The Young Men's 
Christian Association, it cannot be too often repeated, is not 
a rival of the Church ; it is the Church functioning for a par- 
ticular purpose, and every success won by the Young Men's 
Christian Association is a success won by the Church. Apart 
from the resources of money and of men supplied by the 
Church, the Association could not continue its work for a 
single day. Look over the country and call the roll of the 
leading churches and seminaries and you will find that they 
have stripped themselves of their most trusted leaders that 
in this time of need they might lend the Association their 
counsel at headquarters and their service on the field. 

Nor is this an isolated example. In every department of 
the national service clergymen are rendering indispensable 
help. In the offices of the Food Administration at Washington, 
in cooperation with the Committee on Public Information, as 
community organizers under the Training Camp Activities 
Commission, you will find them at work. In this unselfish 
service rendered without publicity or hope of reward the 
Church is showing herself true to her own highest ideals and 
justifying the confidence of those who have trusted her. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 249 

The Interpretation of Ideals 

But good as this is, so far as it goes, it is not enough. Apart 
from the service rendered by individual Christians and bodies 
of Christians, the Church as such has a function to fulfil which 
she can surrender to no one else. As the interpreter to man- 
kind of those ideals of the spirit which transcend time she 
joins to her duty as servant of the nation an ecumenical re- 
sponsibility. Facing the grim alternatives which confront 
mankind with an imperialism which has no place for the free 
personality and an anarchic individualism incapable of effective 
social action, she has her contribution to make to a disciplined 
democracy. In the new ideal for man which Christ has 
brought into the world, in the new revelation of man's capa- 
city for redemption and renewal through a power greater than 
"his own ; above all, in the new vision of God which makes 
possible faith in a better future, we possess resources without 
which the ideal of a world of free men at peace, for which 
the nation fights, is incapable of realization. 

More and more this is becoming apparent. In the strife 
of ideals, as in the contests of physical force, the battle belongs 
to the strongest, and it is through religion that ideals renew 
their strength. 

From a private letter from a well know publicist, author 
of one of the most illuminating documents published by the 
Committee on Public Information, I quote the following: 

"How hard it is to keep our heads in these dreadful days and 
maintain our ideals ! I wonder if Germany is going to smash our 
ideals, even if it misses our corporeal heads. Are we going to be 
compelled to succumb to the materialism of her whole philosophy — 
even those of us who see it and loathe it — and emulate her whole 
policy? God forbid; but I hope God is more certain than I am." 

It is because we believe that God is more certain of the 
■outcome than we that we can face the issue with confidence. 
But it is through the Church that this confidence must find 
expression. Above all other tasks which the hour lays upon 
her is the task of renewing men's failing faith through fresh 
witness to the God of triumphant love. 

For this supreme service we must have a united and dis- 
ciplined Church. Lamentable in their bearing upon her prac- 
tical ministry, the divisions of the Church become tragical in 
their effects upon her witness to the spirit. We are fighting, 
so we say, to put an end to the rivalry of states and to organize 
the nations into a single commonwealth. How can we expect 
men to take us seriously when within the Church we confess 
a similar ideal incapable of realization? 

It is this insight which gives dignity to the work of the 



250 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

Commission. Over all its humdrum tasks of organization 
and detail shines the light of a great ideal. It is the ideal of a 
Church which shall be true enough to her own professed faith 
to make her words carry conviction to those to whom they come. 
There is only one way to hasten the realization of this ideal, 
and that is for those who accept it to learn how to work, to 
think, and to worship together. That is what the leaders of 
the churches are trying to do, and we of the War-Time Com- 
mission are trying to help them. 

Respectfully submitted, 

(Signed) William Adams Brown, Secretary. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 251 



APPENDIX I 

GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION OF THE CHURCHES 
Office: 105 East 22d Street, New York, N, Y. 

Speer, Robert E., Chairman, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William, Vice -Chairman, 122 Commonwealth Av- 
enue, Boston, Mass. 

Brown. Rev. William Adams, Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New York, 
N. Y. 

White, Rev. Gaylord S., Associate Secretary. 

Tryon, Harold H., Assistant Secretary. 

Cavert, Rev. Samuel McCrea, Assistant Secretary. 

North, Eric M., Assistant Secretary. 

Advisory Council 

Atkinson, Rev. Henry A., New York City 
Barbour, President Clarence A., New York City 
Carson, Rev. John F., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Knubel, Rev. Frederick H.. New York City 
Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr., New York City 
Stuntz, Bishop Homer C, Omaha, Nebr. 

Members of the General War-Time Commission 

Atkinson, Rev. Henry A., New York City 
Barbour, President C. A., New York City 
Barton, Rev. James L., Boston, Mass. 
Batten, Rev. Samuel Z., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Beardsley, Hon. Henry M., Kansas City, Mo. 
Beauchamp, Rev. W. B., Nashville. Tenn. 
Beck, Rev. Charles H., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Berry, Bishop Joseph F., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Birney, Dean L. J., Boston, Mass. 
Blake, Rev. Edgar, Chicago, 111. 
Bowman, E. M., Glen Head, L. L 
Boynton, Rev. Nehemiah, Fort Hamilton, N. Y. 
Breyfogel, Bishop S. C, Reading, Pa. 
Bridgman, Rev. Howard A., Boston, Mass. 
Brockman, Fletcher S., New York City 
Brooks, Rev. W. H., New York City 
Brown, Dean Charles R., New Haven, Conn. 
Brown, George Warren, St. Louis, Mo. 
Brown, Rev. William Adams, New York City 
Carson, Rev. J. F., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Chamberlain, Rev. W. L, New York City 
Cobb, Rev. Henry Evertson, New York City 
Coffin, Rev. F. G., Albany, N. Y. 
Coffin, Rev. Henry Sloane, New York City 
Coleman, George W., Boston, Mass. 
Covert, Rev. W. C, Chicago, 111. 
Cratty, Miss Mabel, New York City 
Crawford, Hanford, St. Louis, Mo. 



252 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

Cushman, Mrs. James S., New York City 
Delk, Rev. Edwin Heyl, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Dillard, Dr. James H., Charlottesville, Va. 
Fallows, Rt. Rev. Samuel, Chicago, 111. 
Faunce, President W. H. P., Providence, R. I. 
Forsyth, Rev. David D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Fosdick, Rev. Harry E., New York City 
Foulkes, Rev. William Hiram, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Gamble, James N., Cincinnati, Ohio 
Glenn, John M., New York City 
Goodell, Rev. Charles L., Nev>r York City 
Gray, Rev. B. D., Atlanta, Ga. 
Gregg, Frank M., Cleveland, O. 
Grose, Rev. Howard B., Washington, D. C. 
Harbison, William A., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Harding, Rt. Rev. Alfred, Washington, D. C. 
Haven, Rev. William I., New York City 
Hawkins, Prof. John R., Washington, D. C. 
Heinz, H. J., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Henderson, Bishop T. S., Detroit, Mich. 
Hendrix, Bishop E. R., Kansas City, Mo. 
Herring, Rev. Hubert C, Boston, Mass. 
Holt, Hamilton, New York City. 
Innes, George, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Jenkins, Lt. Col. Walter F., New York City 
Johnson, Alba, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Jones, Rufus M., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Jones, Rev. J. Addison, Albany, N. Y. 
Jones, Thomas Jesse, Washington, D. C.- 
Joy, James R., New York City 
Kershner, Rev. Frederick D., Cincinnati, Ohio 
Kimball, Alfred R., New York City 
King, President Henry Churchill, OlDerlin, Ohio 
Knubel, Rev. F. H., New York City 
Lambuth, Bishop Walter R., Oakdale, Cal. 
Lawrence, Marion, Chicago, 111. 
Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William, Boston, Mass. 
Lawson, Rev. Albert G., New York City 
Lee, Joseph, Boston, Mass. 
Lloyd, Rt. Rev. Arthur S., New York City 
Lord. Rev. Rivington D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Lynch, Rev. Frederick, New York City 
MacKenzie, President Wm. Douglas, Hartford, Conn, 
Marling, Alfred E., New York City 
Marquis, Rev. John A., Cedar Rapids, Iowa 
Mathews, Dean Shailer, Chicago, 111. 
McCormick, Rt. Rev. John M., Grand Rapids, Mich. 
McDowell, Bishop William F., Washington, D. C. ^ 
Merrill, Rev. William P., New York City 
Meyer, Rev. Henry H., Cincinnati, Ohio 
Milliken, Governor Carl E., Augusta, Maine 
Moore, Rev. John M., Nashville, Tenn. 
Mott, John R., New York City 
Mouzon, Bishop E. D., Dallas, Texas 
MuUins, President E. Y., Louisville, Ky. 
Nicholson, Vincent D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Niebuhr, Rev. Reinhold, Detroit, Mich. 
Parker, Col. Edward J., New York City 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 253 

Peabody, Mrs. H. W., Beverley, Mass. 

Pepper, John R., Memphis, Tenn. 

Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr., Providence, R. I. 

Pinchot, Gifford, Milford, Pike County, Pa. 

Pinson, Rev. W. W., Nashville, Tenn. 

Poling, Daniel A., Boston, Mass. 

Post, James H., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Roberts, Rev. William H., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Schiefifelin, William Jay, New York City 

Severance, John L., Cleveland, Ohio 

Schlegel, Rev. H. Franklin, Lancaster, Pa. 

Short, William H., New York City 

Shuey, Edwin L., Dayton, Ohio 

Smith, Fred B., New York City 

Snyder, Dr. H. N., Spartanburg, S. C. 

Southgate, Thomas S., Norfolk, Va. 

Speer, Robert E., New York City 

Speer, Mrs. Robert E., New York City 

Speers, James M., New York City 

Stevenson, President J. Ross, Princeton, N. J. 

Strayer, Rev. Paul Moore, Rochester, N. Y. 

Thirkield, Bishop Wilbur P., New Orleans, La. 

Thomas, Rev. Frank M., Louisville, Ky. 

Thorne, Samuel, Jr., New York City 

Tipple, Rev. Ezra S., Madison, N. J. . 

Vance, Rev. James L, Nashville, Tenn. 

Vawter, Keith, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 

Wilson, Bishop Luther B., New York City 

Woods, Robert A., Boston, Mass. 

Executive Committee 

Speer, Robert E., Chairman 

North, Rev. Frank Mason, President of the Federal Council of the 

Churches of Christ in America, Ex-OfHcio 
Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William, Vice-Chairman of the General War-Time 

Commission of the Churches, Ex-Officio 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A. Kimball, Alfred R. 

Barbour, President Clarence A. King, President Henry C. 

Batten, Rev. Samuel Z. Knubel, Rev. F. H. 

Blake, Rev. Edgar Lawson, Rev. Albert G. 

Carson, Rev. J. F. McDowell, Bishop William F. ■- 

Chamberlain, Rev. W. L Moore, Rev. John M. 

Cratty, Miss Mabel Mott, John R. 

Forsyth, Rev. David D. Nicholson. Vincent D. 

Glenn, John M. Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr. 

Gray, Rev. B. D. Schlegel, Rev. H. Franklin 

Grose, Rev. Howard B. Smith, Fred B. 

Harbison, William A. Speers, James M. 

Flaven, Rev. William L Vance, Rev. James L 

Hawkins. Prof. J. R. - Vawter, Keith 

Innes, George 

Committee on Survey of the Field and Work 

Batten, Rev. Samuel Z., Chairman, 1701 Chestnut Street, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 
Cavert, Rev. S. M., Secretary. 105 East 22d Street, New York City 
Knubel, Rev. Frederick H. 



254 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

Lawson, Rev. Albert G. 
Smith. Fred B. 

General Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains 

Office: 1112 Woodward Building, Washington, D. C. 

McDowell, Bishop William F., Chairman, 1509 16th Street, N. W., 
Washington, D. C. 

Armitage, Rev. Clyde F., Secretary, 1112 Woodward Building, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Bagby, Rev. E. B., Washington, D. C. 

Batten, Rev. Samuel Z., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Bayard, Chaplain G. Livingston, American Expeditionary Force, Paris, 
France 

Bird, Rev. Andrew R., Washington, D. C. 

Bliss, Rev. Edwin M., Washington, D. C. 

Calvin, Rev. J. Alvin, Washington, D. C. 

Cranston, Bishop Earl, Cincinnati, Ohio 

Davis, Rev. Lyman E., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Gray, Rev. B. D., Atlanta, Ga. 

Harding, Rt. Rev. Alfred, Washington, D. C. 

Harper, President W. A., Elon College, N. C. 

Jacobs, Rev. Charles M., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Keever, Rev. Edwin F., Utica, N. Y. 

Lambuth, Bishop Walter R., Oakdale, Cal. 

Prettyman, Rev. Forest R., Washington, D. C. 

Radcliffe, Rev. Wallace, Washington, D. C. 

Steck, Rev. Charles F., Washington. D. C. 

Wenchel, Rev. J. F., Washington, D. C. 

Wood, Rev. Charles, Washington, D. C. 

Committee on Equipment of Chaplains 

Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William, Chairman, 122 Commonwealth Avenue, 

Boston, Mass. 
White, Rev. Gaylord S., Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New York City 
Brown, Rev. William Adams 
Foulkes, Rev. William Hiram 
Tippy, Rev. Worth M. 

Committee on Voluntary Chaplains 

Brown, Rev. William Adams, Chairman, 105 East 22d Street, New 

York City 
White, Rev. Gaylord S., Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New York City 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A. 
Batten, Rev. Samuel Z. 
Carson, Rev. John F. 
Forsyth, Rev. David D. 
Gray, Rev. B. D. 
Innes, George 
Knubel, Rev. Frederick H. 
Moore. Rev. John M. 
Mott, John R. 

Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr. 
Vance, Rev. James I. 

Joint Committee on Chaplains 

Speer, Robert E., Chairman, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
Brown, Rev. William Adams 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION, 255 

Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William 
Macfarland, Rev. Charles S. 
McDowell, Bishop William F. 

Committee on Camp Neighborhoods 

Barbour, President Clarence A., Chairman, 124 East 28th Street, New 

York City 
Brown, Rev. William Adams, Vice-Chairman, 105 East 22d Street, 

New York City 
Guild, Rev. Roy B., Executive Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New 

York City 
Cavert, Rev. Samuel M., Assistant Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, 

New York City 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A. 
Batten, Rev. Samuel Z. 
Carson, Rev. John F. 
Chamberlain, Rev. W. I. 
Ferry, Rev. A. J. 
Forsyth, Rev. David D. 
Gray, Rev. B. D. 
Green, Rev. George 
Innes, George 
Knubel, Rev. Frederick H. 
Moore, Rev. John M. 
Mott, John R. 

Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr. 
Smith, Fred B. 
Stilwell, Rev. Herbert F. 
Vance, Rev. James I. 

Committee on Health and Moral Conditions 

Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr., Chairman, 14 Wall Street, New 

York City 
Strayer, Rev. Paul Moore, Secretary 
Cratty, Miss Mabel 
Gray, Rev. B. D. 
McDowell, Bishop William F. 
Moore, Rev. John M. 
Mott, John R. 
Vance, Rev. James I. 

Committee on Industrial Conditions 

(Commission of the Federal Council on the Church and Social Service) 
King, President Henry Churchill, Chairman, Oberlin College. Oberlin, 

Ohio 
Tippy, Rev. Worth M., Executive Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New 

York City 

X Committee on the Welfare of Negro Troops 

Thirkield, Bishop Wilbur P., Chairman, New Orleans, La. 

Jones, Thomas Jesse, Executive Secretary, 3462 Macomb Street, 

Washington, D. C. 
Hawkins, Prof. John R., Field Secretary, 1541 14th Street, N. W., 

Washington, D. C. 
Dillard, James H. 
Moton, Major Robert R. 
Peabody, George Foster 



256 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

Committee on Interned Aliens 
Knubel, Rev. Frederick H., Chairman, 48 Hamilton Terrace, New 

York City 
Tippy, Rev. Worth M., Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, Nevir York City 
Freas, Rev. William, 437 Fifth Avenue, New York City 

Committee on Investigation of Conditions in France 

Anderson, Bishop W. F., Convener, 420 Plum Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 

Coleman, George W. 

Fosdick, Rev. Harry Emerson 

Goodrich, Rev. Chauncey W. 

McCormick, Rt. Rev. John 

Trexler, Rev. Charles D. 

Committee on War-Time Work in the Local Church and 
Cooperation with the American Red Cross 

Glenn, John M., Chairman, 130 East 22d Street, New York City 
Tippy, Rev. Worth M., Executive Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New 

York City 
Alexander, John L. 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A. 
Batten, Rev. Samuel Z. 
Blake, Rev. Edgar 
Crouch, Rev. Frank M. 
Dean, Rev. G. B. 
Ferry, Rev. Asa J. 
Gray, Rev. B. D. 
Grossman, Rev. A. A. 
Guild, Rev. Roy B. 
Guthrie, Rev. Charles E. 
Hodges, Rev. Harry 
Knubel, Rev. Frederick H. 
Parker, Rev. Fitzgerald S. 
Poling, Daniel A. 
Taylor, Prof. Alva W. 
Van Ness, Rev. Isaac J. 
White, Rev. James A. 

Committee on Conference with the Young Men's and Young 

Women's Christian Associations 

Haven, Rev. William I., Chairman, Bible House, Astor Place, New 

York City 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A. 
Barbour, President Clarence A.- 
Batten, Rev. Samuel Z. 
Brown, Rev. William Adams 
Carson, Rev. John F. 
Cratty, Miss Mabel 
Forsyth, Rev. David D. 
Mott, John R. 
North, Rev. Frank Mason 
Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr. 
Committee on Conference with the War Camp Community Service' 

Brown, Rev. William Adams 
Glenn, John M. 
Speer, Robert E. 

(^) This service is conducted by the Playground and Recreation Asso- 
ciation of America for the War Department and Navy Department Commissions on 
Training Camp Activities. 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 257 

Committee on a Day of Penitence and Prayer 
Mott, John R. 
North, Rev. Frank Mason 
Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr. 

Committee on Literature and Publicity 

White, Rev. Gaylord S., Chamnan, 105 East 22d Street, New York City 
Stelzle, Rev. Charles, Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New York City 
North, Eric M., Assistant Secretary, 105 East 22d Street, New York City 
Brockman, Fletcher S. 
Grose, Rev. Howard B. 
Haven, Rev. WiUiam I. 

Committee on a Church Flag 

Flaven, Rev. William I., Chairman, Bible House, Astor Place, New- 
York City 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A. 
Glenn, John M. 

Committee on Finance 

Bowman, E. M. 
Glenn, John M. 
Harbison, William A. 
Kimball, Alfred R. 

APPENDIX .II 

DIRECTORY OF OTHER WAR-TIME AGENCIES 

American Bible Society, Bible House, Astor Place, New York City 
Wood, James, President 
Fox, Rev. John, Corresponding Secretary 
Haven, Rev. WilHam I., Corresponding Secretary 
American Christian Convention, War Work Committee of the 

Coffin, Rev. F. G., Chairman, 126 Chestnut Street, Albany, N. Y. 
American Friends Service Committee, 20 South 12th Street, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 
Jones, Prof. Rufus M., Chairman, Haverford College, Haverford 

Pa. 
Nicholson, Vincent D., Executive Secretary, 20 South 12th Street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Baptist, North. The V/ar Commission of the Northern Baptist 
Convention 

Coleman, George W., Chairman, 220 Devonshire Street, Boston, 

Mass. 
Batten, Rev. Samuel Z., Secretary, 1701 Chestnut Street, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 
Baptist, South. War Council of the Home Mission Board of the 
Southern Baptist Convention, 1004 Healey Building, Atlanta, Ga. 
Gray, Rev. B. D., Corresponding Secretary 
Green, Rev. George, Director Camp Activities 
Congregational. The National Service Commission of the Congre- 
gational Churches, Room 83, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York City 
Butterfield, President Kenyon L.. Chairman, Amherst, Mass. 
Atkinson, Rev. Henry A., Secretary, 289 Fourth Avenue, New 
York City 
Disciples of Christ, War Emergency Committee for the 

Burnham, Frederick W., Carew Building, Cincinnati, Ohio 
Vawter, Keith, Secretary, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 



258 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

Evangelical Association. Commission for War Time Work among 
the Army Camps and at the Front 

Breyfogel, Bishop S. C, Chairman, 836 Centre Avenue, Readinsf, 

Pa. 
Berger, Rev. F._ C, Secretary, 1903 Woodland Avenue, S. E., 
Cleveland, Ohio 
Evangelical Synod of N. A,, War Welfare Commission of the, 1716 
Chouteau Avenue, St. Lx)uis, Mo. 

Dresel, Rev. William N., Chairman, 31 North 3d Street, Evans- 

ville, Ind. 
Niebuhr, Rev. Reinhold, Executive Secretary, 787 Lothrop Ay- 
enue, Detroit, Mich. 
Jewish Board for Welfare Work in the U. S. Army and Navy, 19 
West 44th Street, New York City 

Cutler, Col. Harry, Chairman, 7 Eddy Street, Providence, R. I. 
Teller, Chester J., Secretary and Executive Director, 19 West 
44th Street, New York City 
Lutheran Church (all general bodies). National Lutheran Com- 
mission for Soldiers' and Sailors' Welfare, 437 Fifth Avenue, New 
York City 

Knubel, Rev. Frederick H., Chairman, 48 Hamilton Terrace, 

New York City 
Freas. Rev. William, OMce Secretary, 437 Fifth Avenue, New 
York City 
Methodist Episcopal Church. War Council of the 

Berry, Bishop Joseph W., Chairman, 1701 Arch Street, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 
McDowell, Bishop William F., Chairman of Executive Committee, 

1509 16th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 
Henderson, Bishop Theodore S., Executive OMcer 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. War-Time Commission of 
the 

Lambuth, Bishop Walter R., Chairman, Oakdale, Cal. 
Moore, Rev. John M., Secretary, 810 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 
Methodist Protestant Church, War Work Commission of the 
Davis, Rev. Lyman E., 219 Sixth Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Beck, Rev. Charles H., Secretary, 507 Pittsburgh Life Building, 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South), General War WorK 
Council of the, 154 Fifth Avenue, North, Nashville, Tenn. 

Vance, Rev. James I., Chairman, 154 Fifth Avenue, North, Nash- 
ville, Tenn. 
Gunn, Rev. C. Groshon, Executive Secretary, 154 Fifth Avenue, 
North, Nashville, Tenn. 
Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., The National Service Commission 
of the, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City 

Carson, Rev. John F., Chairman, 258 Jefferson Avenue, Brooklyn, 

N. Y. 
Ottman, Rev. Ford C, Executive Secretary, 156 Fifth Avenue, 
New York City 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the U. S. of A. The War Commis- 
sion of the Episcopal Church, 14 Wall Street, New York City 
Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William, Chairman, 122 Commonwealth 

Avenue, Boston, Mass. 
Perry, Rt. Rev. James DeWolf, Jr.. Chairman of Executive Com- 
mittee and Executive, 14 Wall Street, New York City 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 259 

Reformed Church in America, War Service Commission of the 
League for Patriotic Service of the 

Voorhees, Rev. Oscar M., Chairman, 350 East 146th Street New 
York City 

Chamberlain, Rev. W. I., Clmirman, Camp Neighborhood Commit- 
tee, 25 East 22d Street, New York City 

Reformed Church in the U. S., The National Service Commission 
of the 

Office: 15th and Race Streets, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Schaeflfer, Rev. Charles E., Chairman. 

Cramer, Rev. W. Stuart, Secretary and Treasurer, Lancaster, 
Pa. 

Roman Catholic Church. National Catholic War Council 

Office of Executive Committee : Catholic University, Washington, 

D. C. 
Burke, Rev. John J., President, 120 West 60th Street, New York 

City 
Hooke, Walter G., Executive Secretary, 154 East 38th Street, 

New York City 

Salvation Army, War Board of the, 122 West 14th Street, New York 
City 

Booth, Commander Evangeline, Chairman 
Parker, Col. Edward J., Secretary 

Sunday Schools. National Sunday School War Coimcil 

Blake, Rev. Edgar, President, 58 East Washington Street, Chi- 
cago, 111. 

Alexander, John L, Secretary, 1416 Mailers Building, 5 So. 
Wahash Avenue, Chicago, 111. 

Unitarian Churches, War Work Council of the, 25 Beacon Street, 
Boston, Mass. 

Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., Chairman 
Forbes, Rev. Elmer S., Secretary 

United Committee on War Temperance Activities in the Army and 
Navy, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York City 

Poling, Daniel A., Chairman, 31 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, Mass. 
Whitney, Rev. Arthur E., Executive Secretary, 289 Fourth 
Avenue, New York City 

United Evangelical Church, War Service Commission of the, 441 

West Chestnut Street, Lancaster, Pa. 

Heil, Rev. William F., President, Allentown, Pa. 
Schlegel, Rev. H. Franklin, Secretary, 441 West Chestnut St., 
Lancaster, Pa. 

United Presbyterian Church, National Service Commission of the, 

334 Land Title Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Pollock, Rev. Thomas C, Chairman, 5034 Hazel Avenue, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Free, Rev. Lytle R., Secretary, 334 Land Title Building, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Young Men's Christian Association of the United States, National 
War Work Council of the, 124 East 28th Street, New York City 
Sloane, William, Chairman 
Mott, John R., General Secretary 
Brockman, Fletcher S., Associate General Secretary 



260 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

Young People's Societies. Interdenominational Young People's 
Commission 

Poling, Daniel A., President, 31 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, Mass. 
Hall, Rev. William Ralph, Secretary, Witherspoon Building, Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. 
Young Women's Christian Associations, War Work Council of the 
National Board of the, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City 
Cushman, Mrs. James S., Chairman 
Morse, Mrs. Howard, Secretary pro tent. 
Cratty, Miss Mabel, General Secretary, National Board 



APPENDIX III 

The President and the Governors of the several States have 
again appointed a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. In behalf 
of the Christian Churches and upon the request of their War 
Service Commissions we desire to support this call and to ask 
the Christian people of the land to extend the observance from 
Thanksgiving Day over the ensuing Sunday. We suggest 
that Thursday be devoted to our customary national Thanks- 
giving, Friday to penitence and humiliation, Saturday to sup- 
plication and Sunday to intercession. 

Our generation confronts the gravest and most solemn issues. 
Twice our fathers faced such issues, at the beginning of the 
nation and in the tragedy of the Civil War. And now our 
time of supreme need and trial has come. How can we meet 
it except in the guidance and strength of God? By our own 
necessities and by the distress and calamity of mankind we 
are summoned to prayer. In the name of the Churches we 
voice this summons to all our people. 

On Thursday in our homes and in our churches let us give 
thanks to God for His goodness and His infinite patience and 
pity, for freedom and prosperity, for our nation and our homes, 
for the past security of our shores, for peace within our own 
borders, for the sense of national unity and brotherhood, for 
the honor of self-sacrifice and the glory of service unto death, 
for God's gracious love and for the salvation provided for us 
and for all mankind in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication 
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the 
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts 
and minds through Christ Jesus. — Phil., IV, 6, 7. 

On Friday let us implore the compassion and forgiveness of 
God and confess and repent of our sins, our selfishness and 
unbrotherliness, our acceptance of un-Christian conditions and 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION. 261 

ideals, our toleration of impurity and intemperance and the 
various forces of evil which prey upon the lives of our people 
and unnerve the nation, our race prejudice and our assent to 
any form of injustice among ourselves or in our relations to 
other peoples. In sorrowful remembrance of our own faults 
and errors, let us humble ourselves before God and pray for 
His mercy that we may be spared His just judgments. 

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth 
is not in us. If we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive 
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. — I John, I, 8, 9. 

On Saturday let us beseech God for His blessing upon our 
homes, our churches, our communities, all our agencies of 
service and benevolence, our country, for the overthrow of 
wrong and the triumph of righteousness, for the enlighten- 
ment of the mind of the nation to know and do His will, for 
courage to endure every sacrifice at the call of duty, for 
fortitude in the hour of adversity, and that we may offer unto 
God for His work the united body of the nation. Let us pray 
for our soldiers and sailors that they may assist by God's 
grace in the sure re-establishment .of law and order and justice. 
Let us implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the 
hearts, enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of all 
men that courses of wrong may be relinquished, that the 
effusion of blood may be stayed, that the hurt of humanity 
may be healed, that friendship and goodwill may be restored 
and that peace may be established throughout the earth. 

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speak- 
ing be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to an- 
other, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. — Eph., IV, 31, 32. 

On Sunday let us make intercession for all men, for the 
suffering and destitute, for our allies and for our enemies, for 
those who have gone forth from us, without anger or hate, 
at the call of duty, to serve our nation and mankind in this 
great struggle on land and sea, that God may enable them 
worthily to live or to die as the servants of His Holy Name 
and that, if it be His will, they shall both do all their duty 
and return to us again. Let us pray for the President and for 
Congress and for all who in this hour serve in any way the 
common weal that they may be given courage and wisdom and 
consecration and that the cause of righteousness may triumph. 
Let us pray for all mankind and for the coming of its one 
hope and deliverance in the reign of Jesus Christ our Lord 
as the King of all the earth. 

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplication, prayers, interces- 
sions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; for kings, and for all 



262 FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 

that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all 
godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of 
God and our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come 
unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one media- 
tor between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave himself a 
ransom for all, to be testified in due time. — / Tim., II, 1-6. 

We ask that in our places of worship and in the secret 
prayers of our hearts, these days be solemnly observed that the 
nation may seek after God and find Him. And we suggest 
that not only during these four days should all the Christian 
people of our land join in this united prayer and supplication 
but also that in our homes and as far as possible in our churches 
there should be daily intercession that we may both know and 
do God's righteous will, that wrong may be overthrown among 
the peoples and in the hearts of men and that the prayer of 
the whole creation may be heard, "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

Robert E. Sfeer 
William Lawrence 
Frank Mason North 

November 12, 1917. 



Literature on the 
War- Work of the Churches 



The Churches of Christ in Time of War 

Addresses and the Message of the Special Meeting of the Federal 
Council, Washington, May, 1917. Cloth, 192 pp. Fifty Cents. 

The War-Time Tasks of Every Church 
and Community 

A Practical Manual of Work for All Churches during the War. 
64 pp. Single copies, 10 cents; Twelve copies, $1.00. 

A War-Time Program for Local Churches 

With Emphasis on Churches distant from Training Camps. Single copies 
on application; $1.50 per hundred; $13.00 per thousand. 

New Ventures in Faith 

Suggestions for New Discoveries of the Resources and the Guidance of 
God. A manual of daily devotion for a month. 68 pp. Single 
copies, 20 cents; 12 copies, $2.00; 100 copies, $10.00. 



Other literature is published by the various denominational 
war-time commissions. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




The Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America 

Rev. Frank Mason North, President 

Charles S. Macfarland, Qeneral Secretary 

Roy B. Guild, Secretary 

Sidney L. Gulick, Secretary 

Charles Stelzle, Secretary 

Worth M. Tippy, Secretary 

Clyde F. Armilage, Assistant Secretary 

Alfred R. Kimball, Treasurer 



GENERAL WAR-TIME COMMISSION 
OF THE CHURCHES 

Robert E. Speer, Chairman 

Rt. Rev. William Lavs^rence, V ice-Chairman 

Rev. William Adams Brown, Secretary 

Rev. Gaylord S. White, Associate Secretary 

Harold H. Tryon, Assistant Secretary 

Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert, Assistant Secretary 

Eric M. North, Assistant Secretary 



105 EAST 22d STREET, - NEW YORK 

Branch Office; 1112 Woodward Building, Washington, D. C. 



